Ieyoub defends hiring practices

Wednesday

Jan 24, 2001 at 12:01 AM

Attorney General Richard Ieyoub came to Houma Tuesday to try to "set the record straight" about an audit released in December that criticized his hiring of outside attorneys to perform legal work for the state.

The audit was the subject of an Associated Press news story, followed later by a Courier editorial that was critical of Ieyoub's practices.

The audit, conducted by the office of Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle, concluded that Ieyoub, among other things farmed out work too often to outside attorneys and did not establish standards. Instead, Kyle suggested Ieyoub hire more staff attorneys, saying that would save the state money overall and provide more legal output.

Ieyoub told The Courier he agrees with Kyle's suggestion and that he's been doing just that since he took office as the state's top legal officer in 1992.

"I put together a three-step plan to do more in-house," he said.

He brought along a chart showing that that the year he took office, then Attorney General Bill Guste had handed 4,647 cases to outside attorneys on contract at a cost of $17.1 million. Since then, those figures have declined. Last year, Ieyoub awarded just 1,001 cases to outside attorneys at a cost of $11.4 million.

Ieyoub said he would go even further and hire more in-house attorneys, but has been hampered by budget cuts. Last year, he said the Legislature cut his budget by more than $2 million, forcing him not to fill 30 positions. This year, he is bracing for another $500,000 worth of budget tightening.

"They're cutting us to pieces," he said.

The irony, Ieyoub said, is that his office earns a lot of money for the state, last year bringing in about $177 million through settlements and judgments. Most of that money, however, does not go into his budget, but rather goes into the state's general operating fund, he said.

Ieyoub also defended the qualifications of his outside attorneys, saying he is the first attorney general to have such qualifications. He said in his response to the audit, he delivered to Kyle a copy of the qualifications.

"I'm the first attorney general to publish qualifications in the Louisiana Bar Journal," he said.

Kyle and Ieyoub had a well-publicized run-in last year over an audit conducted after the mayor of Pineville gave away several publicly owned cars. Ieyoub declined to prosecute the case, arousing Kyle's ire.